The hearing brings to an end a four-year legal battle involving the Fifa agent, from Gateshead, who pleaded not guilty to four other charges of fraud.

Elliott, 54, of Kipling Court, Swalwell, admitted failing to comply with a duty to keep accounting records between March 2007 and March 2008 when he represented Mr Downing, then a Boro midfielder but who now plays for Liverpool.

He was given a six-month prison sentence suspended for two years and was banned from being a company director for ten years.